1. Field of the invention
This invention relates to a appliance for the rapid cooling of beverages in bottles or cans by means of a motor driven appliance that causes a beverage container to rotate while the container is in contact with a bed of ice.
2. Description of the prior art
A number of different devices have been proposed to cool beverage by rotating a beverage container, in or on a bed of ice. The prior art devices however, are large, cumbersome difficult to use and expensive to manufacture.
For example U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,123 issuing Aug. 5, 1997 to Handlin for QUICK COOL DEVICE disclosing a manually powered design that turns a beverage can while it is in a upright position after it is partially buried in pieces of ice. The principle disadvantage being that an ice chest with a large amount of ice has to be used to allow the device to operate, making it inconvenient to cool one or two containers of beverage.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,368 issuing Feb. 1, 1994 to Ordoukhanian for BEVERAGE COOLING DEVICE that has to be connected to an ice chest. The principle disadvantage being that if only one or two cans of beverage need to be cooled that a large amount of ice has to be placed in a chest, and it would not be convenient for use on a kitchen counter.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,005,378 issuing Apr. 9, 1991 to Ottenheimer for LIQUID CHILLING APPARATUS and U.S. Pat. No 4,825,665 issuing May 2, 1989 to Micallef for COOLING BEVERAGES are designs that limit the use of the proposed machines to cooling liquids in bottles only. The main disadvantage of these units is that they are to large for convenient use and cannot be used to cool canned beverages.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,580,405 issuing Apr. 8, 1986 to Cretsmeyerfor BEVERAGE COOLING DEVICE AND METHOD FOR USING SAME discloses a device that uses a power pack, turning a suction cup that is attached to a beverage can resting in an ice receptacle. The power pack is designed to slid downward on the side of the ice receptacle, thus putting all of the weight of the power pack on the suction cup. The principle disadvantage being that the suction cup has the tendency to come loose from the beverage container.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,549,409 issuing Oct. 29, 1985 to Smith for APPARATUS FOR COOLING BEVERAGE CONTAINERS AND THE LIKE discloses a beverage cooler that is designed to grip and rotate various size beverage containers by means of cups that hold each end of the beverage container that is placed in an ice receptacle, that is allowed to move up or down by means of springs between the ice try and the base of the apparatus. The primary disadvantages being that the device is large, expensive to manufacture and difficult to use, because it is hard to place the beverage container in the cups with one hand, while holding the ice receptacle down with the other hand.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,164,851 issuing Aug. 21, 1979 to Bryant for BEVERAGE CONTAINER COOLER discloses a device that uses a chest type cooling compartment with long three inch diameter rollers in the bottom of the chest. The rollers are covered with foam and cannot come in contact with the ice cubes, or the ice may tear the foam, so only four to six ice cubes can be used at a time, by placing the cubes between the beverage container and a ice retaining member that forms a V-shaped groove, thus limiting the cooling capacity of the machine and requiring the addition of ice each time the cubes are melted. The device is expensive to manufacture and is to large for convenient use on a kitchen counter.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,316,734 issuing May 2, 1967 to Crane for APPARATUS FOR COOLING CANNED LIQUID discloses a device for cooling canned liquids. The apparatus is expensive, complicated and to large for convenient use.